Part of the SNAP-Ed Strategies & Interventions Toolkit.*
SPARK disseminates evidence-based Physical Education, After School, Early Childhood, and Coordinated School Health programs to teachers and recreation leaders serving Pre-K through 12th grade students. Each SPARK Program provides a coordinated package of highly active curriculum, on-site staff development, extensive follow-up support, and expert selected, content-matched equipment.
SPARK has numerous evidence-based programs designed to improve health that target areas such as physical education, after school, early childhood and coordinated school health. SPARK aims to develop healthy lifestyles, movement knowledge, motor skills, and social and personal skills. SPARK programs include a package of highly active curriculum, training for teachers, extensive follow-up support and content-matched equipment that help to foster environmental and behavioral changes. SPARK curriculum is aligned with numerous state and national standards.
SPARK targets pre-K through 12th grade students. The program is designed to be implemented by teachers and recreation leaders in settings such as school physical education classes, recess, after school programs, and early child care settings.
SPARK is a National Institutes of Health researched program that positively effects ALL of these student outcomes: Activity levels in class and away from school, physical fitness, sport skills, enjoyment of PE, and academic achievement. Teachers improve their quantity and quality of instruction, and the positive effects of SPARK sustain and institutionalize.
*SNAP-Ed Strategies & Interventions: An Obesity Prevention Toolkit for States is a compilation of interventions. The toolkit was developed by USDA's Food and Nutrition Service, The Association of SNAP-Ed Nutrition Education Administrators (ASNNA), the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Center for Training and Research Translation (Center TRT), and the National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research (NCCOR), a partnership between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes for Health (NIH), the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the USDA. It is designed and updated to help state SNAP-Ed administrative and implementing agencies identify evidence-based obesity prevention programs and policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) strategies and interventions to include in their SNAP-Ed plans.